. Among the Nifty50 stocks, Axis Bank surged over 4 per cent while Reliance Industries gained over 3 per cent.

Adavances in banking and energy stocks led the gains in Sensex and Nifty

Sensex and Nifty moved higher on Friday amid broad-based gains. The Sensex rose over 250 points to 34,998 while Nifty reclaimed 10,700 levels. Banking, capital goods, auto and oil & gas stocks supported the gains while some weakness was seen in IT stocks. Among the Nifty50 stocks, Axis Bank surged over 4 per cent while Reliance Industries gained over 3 per cent. ICICI Bank, Eicher Motors and Adani Ports were also among the top gainers. Yes Bank shares rose 1.5 per cent, extending its Thursday's 8 per cent gains.

Bharti Airtel, Tech Mahindra, Wipro and TCS were among the top losers in the Nifty50 pack, down about 1 per cent. The breadth of the market was also strong, with BSE midcap and smallcap indices trading 0.5 per cent higher.

South Korea's KOSPI briefly rose more than 1 percent and set a one-month high, helped partly by hopes that a summit meeting between the leaders of North and South Korea would end their decades-long conflict and ease tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

The firmer tone of Asian equities came after each of Wall Street's major indexes rose 1 per cent or higher on Thursday, while Amazon.com Inc shares jumped more than 6 per cent in after-market trading after the online retailer reported a 43 per cent surge in first-quarter revenue.